The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
The Maintenance Release (MR) is an important step in the operational cycle of aircraft flights and intervening maintenance periods on the ground. The MR documents the airworthiness status of the aircraft and identifies any restrictions that the flight crew operating the aircraft must adhere to. The MR is also a legal statement (defined by aviation regulatory agencies) with restrictions on whom and under what conditions a MR can be created or issued. Typically only a licensed aviation mechanic is allowed to document a MR and at the time of release any aircraft defects must either be corrected or deferred according to the rules governed by the “Minimum Equipment List” or other approved aviation procedures.
Assessment of airworthiness status today is typically left up to the releasing line mechanic who will be reviewing paper logbook systems in an attempt to completely assess various items that must be considered and documented prior to releasing the aircraft to the flight crew of the aircraft. Such items may include the status of any open defect reports, for example, are they closed or deferred, for defects related to the airworthiness of the aircraft only (i.e., not cabin & passenger service related defects). The releasing line mechanic will also be reviewing the expiration status of any previously entered deferrals, whether they are operational time or cycle limited and/or calendar day based expiration deferrals. The releasing line mechanic will also be reviewing the operational restrictions associated with any active deferrals, and the completion status of any service checks required for the upcoming flight mission.
The continuous monitoring of the technical status of an aircraft is typically left to ground based maintenance history & planning systems. However, these systems may not always receive timely inputs from aircraft logbook systems, which are often paper based, to accurately reflect the operational defects, corrective actions and/or deferrals that need to be fully considered during the maintenance release process.
Human assessment of the airworthiness status of aircraft also can be a time consuming review process when paper-based logbook systems must be reviewed. Nevertheless, such detailed information concerning all maintenance, fault and operational restrictions on the aircraft needs to be fully considered by an individual responsible for creating the MR record.